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Robert Runcie 1942.
Robert Alexander Kennedy Runcie was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, on 2nd October 1921. Educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, Crosby, he went up to Brasenose College, Oxford. Commissioned from Sandhurst into the Scots Guards in November 1942, he commanded a troop of Churchill tanks in the battle for Europe, winning the MC in 1945. His citation states that he rescued two soldiers from a burning tank whilst under fire and, the next day, knocked out two enemy self-propelled guns and an 88mm gun. He was also amongst the first British troops to enter the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After his demob, he returned to Oxford to study classics before being ordained into the Church of England in 1950, first working as a curate in Newcastle. Marked out as a rising star, Runcie was consecrated as Bishop of St Albans in 1970.
In 1979, Robert Runcie was selected as archbishop of Canterbury, the senior bishop of the Church of England. During his tenure, he frequently clashed with the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, over the Conservative Party policies of individualism and wealth creation. In 1981, he officiated at the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. Despite considerable opposition, he sought to bring the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches together and, in a gesture of goodwill, prayed together
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